KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) – Conditions for crops and livestock are growing more dire by the day in the southwestern United States as drought grips the region.
Texas is a tinderbox, pastureland for hungry cattle is drying up, and prospects are deteriorating rapidly for wheat, corn, cotton and other crops.
“Conditions are just deplorable right now. One hundred percent of the state is currently in some form of drought,” said Texas agriculture commissioner Todd Staples.
The threat to cattle and crop production comes at a time when prices for both are soaring and potentially further adds to food costs around the world.
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Data released on April 14 by a consortium of national climate experts said a lack of rain had caused the drought expand to extreme and even exceptional levels in parts of Oklahoma and Texas.
In Midland, Texas, rainfall has been only two percent of the norm since Oct. 1, making it the driest period on record there.
“The Southwest is pretty bad from southeast Arizona all the way over to Louisiana,” said Mark Svoboda, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. “Texas is particularly bad. It is not a very good situation.”
